Moody Blues fans have been watching and waiting, as the songs says, for something new from the band. But singer-bassist John Lodge isn’t talking out of turn when he says such hopes may rank among, well, their wildest dreams.
“I don’t think there’ll be anything with the Moodys,” Lodge says from his home in Naples, Fla., where he’s been spending part of his quarantine writing and recording new material. “I know the Moodys won’t tour again. I would tour, but I know Justin [Hayward] doesn’t want to tour with the Moodys, so it won’t happen.” Lodge adds that he’s none too happy about it, “but it’s life, you know.” And it’s given him a charge to keep the group’s music at the forefront of his own performances.
“When I tour, I just play all Moody Blues songs because I want to keep it alive and fresh,” says Lodge, who joined the Moodys with Hayward in 1966 and has remained a constant through the group’s subsequent 15 studio albums — starting with 1967’s Days of Future Passed — and has contributed songs such as “Ride My See-Saw,” “(Evening) Time to Get Away,” “I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band),” “Steppin’ in a Slide Zone” and “Gemini Dream.” He and Hayward also recorded the Blue Jays album together in 1975 while the Moodys were temporarily split up.
The group’s last album was 2003’s December. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.
“The Moody Blues meant so much to me, and so much to so many people,” Lodge notes. “It’s been part of me for 50 years — more, really. I’m very proud of it, and that’s why I want to keep playing those songs and keep it fresh and alive. I don’t want the Moody Blues to ever become just, like, a singalong band, you know? I want to keep it going.”
Lodge, who has also released a pair of solo albums in his career, put out two singles during the pandemic shutdown — “In These Crazy Times,” which came out last year and, more recently, “The Sun Will Shine.” Both feature backing vocals by Yes‘ Jon Davison, the boyfriend of Lodge’s daughter Emily. A new EP, On Reflection, is also on the horizon.
Lodge will join Zombies, the Hollies, Procol Harum, the Yardbirds and others on the Flower Power Cruise next March 28 through April 4 and plans to build his own tour around it.